Emma

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Summary: Austentatious!
Review: As with all of Austen's novels, the reader will find the breadth of human character within the cover. The novel demonstrates a biting wit as well as a sentimenal side. I first read this book when I was fifteen and I was absolutely captivated. If you have not read this book then you are in for a treat.

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Summary: read it for its historical significance...
Review: 'Emma' is the first Jane Austen novel I've read in 20 years. My earlier experiences (with 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Sense and Sensibility') were disappointing; they seemed to be overly genteel and without substance. Was 'Emma' any different? Er,.. no.

The first thing that grabs you about 'Emma' is that it reads like a play. It is almost all dialogue. No action, no flowing descriptions of the early 1800s England country ... just talk. This makes for a very tiresome read.

Worse, the story (about a sweet young thing who busily plays matchmaker without any consideration of her 'victims' or her own love life) is rather [bad]. Any dramatic moments are very tame. Emma's high society world is so devoid of emotion it is any wonder they bother living at all. And in Emma's world there are no bad guys, no poverty, ... and no one seems to work for a living. Think 'Ozzie & Harriet' transported back 150 years and plopped into rural England and you've got the idea.

So why bother with 'Emma'? Purely out of respect for the author, and her legacy as one of the founding female writers of modern English literature. She attempts, although not very successfully, in writing on matters other than soap operatic tosh ("gothic novels") her female peers did during that time. True, other woman writers have since greatly eclipsed anything Jane Austen has done. But she was the pioneer. So please give at least one of her novels a try.

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Summary: Finding Love in a Cruel World
Review: Matchmaker, Matchmaker,
Make me a match,
Find me a find,
Catch me a catch,
Night after night in the dark I'm alone
So find me a match,
Of my own.

- Fiddler on the Roof

In this romance, all the married characters are perfectly matched: Mr. and Mrs. Weston, John and Isabella Knightley, the reverend and his wife, and the list goes on. No wonder there is a friendly cupid in the village: Emma Woodhouse. This story explores the different aspects of love.

Harriet Smith is Emma's friend. Miss Smith falls in love with three men in one year; quite a record even for Highbury. Hardly a flirt, Harriet Smith's heart is pure and indestructible. Bad advice makes her ditch Robert Martin, but a chance encounter reveals that her feelings for him are unchanged. "Unconditional" is the best word for this kind of love.

Mr. Knightley's love is unrequited. For years he's been longing for a woman out of reach. And Emma does not even know she is in love. She only finds out when Harriet lays claim to the one man her heart desires.

And the case of Mr. Woodhouse reveals a bizarre and unhealthy obsession. He refuses to believe his family and servants can ever find happiness away from Hartfield. But this actually reveals his own dependent form of love. When Emma marries he won't let her leave the house, so unfortunately her husband has to move in till Mr. Woodhouse dies.

But it is not a tale of love unless the green-eyed-monster makes an appearance. Emma's jealousy is the most obvious. Jane plays the piano better than she does. Jane does almost everything better than Emma. It is no wonder that Highbury's most eligible bachelor is enraptured by this pale beauty. Needless to say, Jane Fairfax is an infrequent visitor at Hartfield.

Miss Fairfax in turn discovers her jealousy of Emma at Box Hill, when Emma flirts loudly with a man who unbeknownst to her, is Jane's secret lover. Jane decides to break all ties with Emma. This might have been the best plan, because until matters turn right, sickness makes Jane paler than ever which may frighten visitors.

But perhaps the worst culprit is Mr. Knightley whose disparaging remarks concerning Frank Churchill at first seem to be the wise counsel of a man of the world. Frank found true love as a young man while Mr. Knightley is fast approaching middle age unable or unwilling to find someone to marry. His constant criticism of Frank ends abruptly when he finds a woman willing to marry him.

Highbury's cupid is in some ways similar to Jane Austen. They both are strong independent women who believe that marriage with the right person can create happiness. This is a light read. For the most part, Austen avoids physical description in favor of dialogue. It is amazing how depth of character can be portrayed this way. Jane Austen's ability to make fiction appear real is a rare talent.

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Summary: Irony in Emma
Review: In Jane Austen's Emma, there is an abundance of irony that can clearly be seen. This can be seen in several parts of the book, and is at work throughout it. One example is the web woven between Emma Woodhouse, Mr. Elton, and Harriet Smith. Another is Frank Churchill's secret engagement to Jane Fairfax. Yet another is Mr. Knightley and Emma being in love. Austen uses
irony expertly to keep us, the readers, guessing.
Austen's use of irony between Harriet, Mr. Elton, and Emma is obvious. She uses it when Emma paints a portrait of Harriet for Mr. Elton. Referring to the portrait, Mr. Elton says, "'Let
me entreat you, Miss Woodhouse, to exercise so charming a talent in favour of your friend'"(38). There is verbal irony and situational irony in this because Mr. Elton was intending to compliment Emma's artistic skills, but both Emma and Harriet took it as a compliment to Harriet's beauty. Mr. Elton also sends a riddle that indicated he wanted to court Harriet when all along he intended to court Emma.
There was very apparent irony in a entanglement between Emma, Jane, and Frank. We think that Emma and Frank are meant for eachother and will end up together. There is a considerable amount of flirtation between Emma and Frank, and, at one point, Emma fancies herself in love with him. All along though, Frank is involved in a secret engagement with Jane.
Lastly, and probably the most significant, is the irony of Emma and Mr. Knightley being in love with eachother all along. Austen strategically refrains from telling us he is in love with her and Emma never knew she was in love with Mr. Knightley. Their love is portrayed to be of a brother and sister. It is ironic that while Emma is trying to set up all her friends, she is unaware of her own love for Mr. Knightley.
The irony in Emma is necessary to create the confusion that makes this book so splendid. With all the irony throughout the book it makes it almost impossible for the reader to realize what
is actually going on. This adds to the surprise ending. How Austen uses irony makes her a great writer and her book worth reading.

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Summary: This was a wonderful book, no matter what others say!
Review: This book was wonderfully uplifting and entertaining. I enjoyed it immensely, and I believe you will as well, if you like amusing stories dealing with romance, confusion, friendship, matchmaking, and true love. Do not listen to some of the other reviews that say this book is a rip-off of Clueless. Obviously the people who posted those are incredibly ignorant, especially since Emma came out a very long time before Clueless, and if anyone was eligible to sue, it would be Jane Austen (if she was still alive) suing the makers of Clueless. Again, this was a very enjoyable book, and I would definately recommend it to anybody!

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Summary: QUESTION ON THIS BOOK>>>>>IS IT CONSIDERED A >>>A R BOOK>>>>
Review: IS THIS BOOK>>>>>>CONSIDERED an......AR rated book.??...

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Summary: emma
Review: Emma is not such an easy read. The plot is enough to cure anyone's insomnia.But if you really think about it you can get alot out of it about human character. Funny enough Austen never married as Emma planned to never marry and both for the same reason. They wan't to stay and take care of their fathers.I particulary liked the character Miss Bates. She was a very realistic character. Where ever you go there will always be a Miss Bates and a Miss Fairfax. Well, the book was certainly worth reading.

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Summary: loved it
Review: I thought Emma was a deligtful book with a great ending i knew it would end that way but it was fun to read and jane austen is now my hero.

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Summary: review for emma
Review: I felt that Emma was a great book and an informative look into the past, when it was written around 1815. It was interesting to read how everyone called the other Mr., Miss, or Mrs. It was a little confusing because of this, because, for example, there is a Miss Bates and a Mrs. Bates, and sometimes it's hard to remember which is which!

The story is a good one, a great novel that pulls you in, but with lengthy descriptions, and once in awhile it drags. Throughout the story, my 21st century "hurry up" mode would prefer it to move along more quickly.

The storyline, similarly, is also a bit slow at times, but it's a wonderful romantic novel with a human character like Emma. She has flaws, but is enchanting, as are the rest of the characters in the book. it's also very humorous and has a great ironic twist. I definitely recommend it, but to at least a freshman in high school, because it is a challenging book.

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Summary: Wickedly witty
Review: Unlike some of Austen's other famous works, EMMA centers around a beautiful young woman, quick and clever. Though at twenty-one, she is sitting a bit high on the fence as regards marriage, this is of little importance. Emma the character professes not to desire marriage. This is a decision of privilege, and one that is not seen much in many female characters appearing in novels of this time. The reason Emma has the luxury to refuse marriage is not her strong will or great intelligence, it's her great fortune. Emma need not marry because she does not need the money and thus security that a husband would usually bring a woman of lesser fortune and social status. Emma will inherit from her father, and she already enjoys a high position in society. It is therefore not necessary that she marry for any reason beyond love, and when we first meet Emma, we find her skeptical of love and determined to progress slowly into old maidenhood. Long before Maslow developed his Hierarchy of Needs in the field of psychology, Jane Austen understood intuitively that one had to remove physiological need and want before one could get to the greater things of life, like love and self-fulfillment. The beauty of Austen's setting and the social status of her characters, is that since the accumulation of wealth by any one character is virtually a given, and that to speak of money directly is an almost unpardonable social error, these characters are freed to go about their vain, frivolous lives completely unencumbered by thought of where the next meal will come from, or whether or not it is prudent to send one's child to school or to keep him at the farm. Actually working for one's living is definitely unfashionable, and the best position to have is one where you've accumulated so much wealth that you can sit on your estate, live off the interest and not discuss how much money you have or where it came from. True, social status counts for much, and much of social status is determined by the amount of money in one's bank account-but the greater determinant of social rank lies in birth. The daughter of a character with little money but a good name might still be a good catch. The daughter of character who has amassed a great fortune, but done it in some vulgar way or not married well is not such a good catch. In either case, it is not really the amount of money one has, but one's position on the social ladder that Austen wants us to pay attention to.

As usual, Austen addresses her characters with great wit. Of her title character in EMMA, Austen wrote "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like" and sets about doing her best to fulfill this prediction. From the first, Austen seems to regard her character with a smirk and a wink. Within the first few paragraphs she is characterized as "handsome" and "clever", yes, but Austen also speaks "of the real evils of Emma's situation," namely "the power of having rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself." Yet it is clear that by the end of the novel Emma's character will have changed from one of vain frippery to that of a good, noble woman, modest and sure of her true responsibilities. You always know how an Austen novel will end before you even start it; the fun is in GETTING that far. EMMA is no different. An excellent read for a rainy day.